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Cited by 424Sustainable Supply Chain ManagementEnvironmental Sustainability in BusinessSustainability and Innovation in Business

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 58 of the 58 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Circular Business Models: Defining a Concept and Framing an Emerging Research Field

Open access
Nußholz, Julia·2017·Sustainability
DOI 10.3390/su9101810
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Abstract

To aid companies in transitioning towards a circular economy and adopting strategies such as reuse, repair, and remanufacturing, the concept of circular business models has been developed. Although the concept draws on contributions from various academic disciplines, and despite its increasingly frequent use, few scholars clearly define what a circular business model is. Understanding about what makes a business model circular is diverse, hampering the theoretical development and practical application of circular business models. This study aims to help frame the field of circular business model research, by clarifying the fundamentals of the concept from the perspectives of resource efficiency and business model innovation. Expanding on these findings, a review of how the concept is used in recent academic literature is provided. It shows that a coherent view is lacking on which resource efficiency strategies classify a business model as circular. This study clarifies which resource efficiency strategies can be deemed as relevant key strategies for circular business models, and suggests a new definition of the concept. With the definition grounded in analysis of the fundamentals in terms of resource efficiency and business models, the study contributes to theoretical advancement and effective implementation of circular business models.

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Stahel, W. (1994). The utilization-focused service economy: Resource efficiency and product-life extension. The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems, The National Academies Press.
  2. Velte, C.J., and Steinhilper, R. (July, January 29). Complexity in a Circular Economy: A Need for Rethinking Complexity Management Strategies. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering, London, UK.
  3. Jesson, J., Matheson, L., and Lacey, F.M. (2011). Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques, Sage.
  4. Osterwalder, A., and Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers, John Wiley and Sons.
  5. Whalen, K., and Nussholz, J. (2016, January 6–9). Building Extended Value Chains: Lessons from Swedish ICT Repair and Resale ‘Gap Exploiters’ for Original Equipment Manufacturers. Proceedings of the Electronics Goes Green, Berlin, Germany.

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Metadata

Authors
Nußholz, J.
Affiliations
Lund University (SE)
Corresponding author
Nußholz, Julia
ORCID
Nußholz, Julia
Venue
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2017-10-10
Volume
9
Issue
10
Pages
1810
ISSN
2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/su9101810
OpenAlex
W2761793726
Cited by
415
References
58
Citations by year
2026: 36 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 58 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 71 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 15
FWCI
48.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Stiftelsen för Miljöstrategisk Forskning
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Sustainability and Innovation in Business
Keywords
circular business models, circular economy, resource efficiency, business model innovation, reuse, repair, remanufacturing, concept definition, theoretical framework

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